Today we have a pair of the new HIS Radeon HD 7790 iCooler Turbo 1GB graphics cards on hand for some Crossfire testing. With ten of the latest video games we plan to find out if gamers are best off with a pair of 7790 Crossfire cards or a single GeForce GTX 660 Ti or Radeon HD 7950 graphics card, using both frames per second and frame time performance...

AMD spent the better part of last year releasing their latest 28nm GPUís, starting with the Radeon HD 7970 in January and followed by a little over half a dozen more throughout the next 8 months. As impressive as the Radeon HD 7000 series was, we had kind of hoped 2012 would mark the beginning and the end for the series, much as 2011 did for the previous generation.

Expecting something entirely new, this was not to be as we are now 3 months into 2013 and we find ourselves reviewing a brand new AMD graphics card that isnít based on a new architecture. Rather what we have is the latest member of the Southern Islands family, designed to fill the gap between the 7770 and 7850.

So then not the most exciting product to be released, and its performance will be a far cry from what we saw with the GeForce GTX Titan last month. That said, this new graphics card, which goes by the name Radeon HD 7790, is likely going to be of more interest than the GTX Titan to many of you for the simple reason that it is affordable and should be pretty good value as well.

The Radeon HD 7790 will be available in volume beginning April 2nd for as little as $150, which prices it smack bang between the 7770 and 7850. Current pricing has the Radeon HD 7770 at around $110 - $120 while the 7850 costs around $180 - $200.

At this price a pair of Radeon HD 7790 graphics cards should have a similar retail value to that of a single GeForce GTX 660 Ti or Radeon HD 7950 graphics card. Since HIS has supplied us with a pair of 7790 graphics cards for Crossfire testing, we plan to find out if you are better off buying two of these lower end cards or a more expensive mid-range graphics card.